Top 5: MLB's Best

"Hahaha, I am sure I will fit in here!"

In honor of the beginning of the MLS season, we at Unique Sports Theme Name have decided to write about the five best teams in major league baseball and the five worst.  This is, of course, because every team between 6 and 25 are failures in every regard.  For this, I apologize to Todd Helton for his career.  And now, in no particular order:

The Texas Rangers
Yes, getting to the World Series earns you some cred among us esteemed blog writers.  The offseason news was unfortunately all around the Rangers losing out on Cliff Lee, which is certainly a significant loss.  However, the team has a solid rotation even with the loss, with CJ Wilson (3.35 ERA), Colby Lewis (196 Ks), and Tommy Hunter (3.76) heading a group of solid men.  Similarly, the offense lost the revived Vladimir Guerrero, only to replace him with Adrian Beltre, who could either continue last season (7.1 WAR) or go back to his normal, half-assed hitting from Seattle.  There just isn't a hole anywhere in this offense and every position both in the pen, the rotation, and the field has room to improve with their young talent.  Things look good indeed.

The New York Yankees
To continue with the great offense, questionable pitching thread I just started, we go to the Yankees.  Robinson Cano (6.4 WAR) and Brett Gardner (5.4 WAR) were revelations last season, especially Gardner's defense (21.9 UZR, rickdicalus).  Posada will be able to DH fulltime now, which will keep him strong at the plate all year, and the only real problem could come from Derek Jeter's overrated production.  Unfortunately, the pitching isn't so good.  After CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes, the rotation is pretty awful.  AJ Burnett looked terrible last year, walking almost 4 per game and racking up an awful 5+ ERA.  Beyond that, the staff will be filled with old men (Freddy Garcia?) and unproven youngsters (Ivan Nova).  Luckily, the pen looks strong, though one can never really count on the success of bullpen arms from year to year.

The Boston Red Sox
I don't want to talk about it.

The Philadelphia Phillies
For all the great things being said about their rotation, and that rotation is great, I don't think the Phillies are as otherworldly as people seem to believe.  The offense is entirely on the wrong side of 30 with the exception of rightfield, which will be a platoon between the unproven (yet monsterous) rookie Domonic Brown and the 29 yr. old journeyman Ben Francisco, who had his best season ever last year with a .329 OBP.  So the offense does little to even suggest it will be league average, though five years ago it would be an amazing set of bats.  Right now, the Phillies will have to rely on the starters going deep and Brad Lidge providing stability that he hasn't done his entire career outside of that World Series trip.  Which people seem to remember.

Chicago White Sox
Alright, I am going out on a limb here, but the rest of the pack doesn't look great.  One could choose the Giants, but they are playing Pat Burrell every day.  In the outfield no less!  The White Sox, however, have a rotation filled with proven guys who could be great (Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Floyd, Edwin Jackson before he gets traded inevitably).  The offense has some interesting pieces, like an outfield relying on Juan Pierre, Carlos Quentin, and Alex Rios to do stuff that is good, but it should be solid.  Adam Dunn finally doesn't have to play in the field and can team with Konerko to provide some excellent power.  Beckham and Ramirez are solid up the middle, with room to grow.  Omar Vizquel exists.  The bullpen seems like it could be shutdown as well, though (as I mentioned earlier) nobody can ever be too sure with bullpen arms.  Thornton's been great for years, Sale is extremely promising, and the rest of the group has had solid careers.  All in all, they look like they could be damn good.  That, or Ozzie Guillen could just piss off everybody even more.